Ken Deeks
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Our principal act of worship as a community of Christians is the weekly Liturgy, which includes four parts, which are like four acts of a play:
The Liturgy begins with a parade! As we sing our first song, the priests, deacons, and others leading the service enter the church. Leading them is the CRUCIFER or CROSS-BEARER carrying the cross, an important symbol to Christians. Sometimes, the crucifer is accompanied by ACOLYTES (from the Greek “one who follows”). The acolytes, if used, carry candles to be placed on either side of the altar.
The procession is the sign that we are about to enter a heavenly world of worship. In the book of Revelation, Jesus stands at the door of the Church, knocking (Revelation 3). He says that if we open the door, He will come in and eat with us. This is an invitation to communion. Then John sees an open door and is ushered into the worship of heaven (Revelation 4). His vision concerns what happens when we respond to His knocking and open the door. His vision is of what happens when we gather at the Lord’s Table and commune with Him there. When we sit with Christ in communion, we momentarily become participants in the worship of heaven, where angels and saints are gathered around God’s throne singing, “Holy, holy, holy.” This is a most sacred moment.
After the procession, the priest greets us, and we pray. One of the prayers we pray is called the COLLECT FOR PURITY. This is a prayer of preparation for worship. We ask God to help us worship Him.
A COLLECT (pronounced CALL-ECT) is a short prayer with a single sentence. It usually has five parts:
1) The address to God
2) the acknowledgement of a divine attribute related to our request
3) the request
4) the benefit or outcome resulting from the granting of the request
5) the conclusion where we invoke Christ's name or the Holy Trinity
Here is the Collect for Purity according to this five-fold pattern:
1) ADDRESS – Almighty God
2) ACKNOWLEDGEMENT – to whom all hearts are open and all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid,
3) REQUEST – cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
4) DESIRE – that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name,
5) CONCLUSION – through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Next, we read the Ten Commandments or a summary of the commandments. The purpose is to remind us of God’s holy character and that we are called to reflect His life and holiness.
Following the review of the Commandments, we say or sing the Kyrie Eleison (from the Greek for “Lord have mercy” and pronounced KEER-ee-ey / eh-ley-uh-SAWN). Upon hearing the law, we lift our hearts to God, acknowledging our failure to keep it and asking for His mercy.
The cry for mercy is followed by exultant praise, sometimes in the form of the ancient hymn “Glory to God” and sometimes with other songs of praise. This reflects our confidence that the Lord does indeed have mercy!
The next act in this great unfolding drama is the Liturgy of the Word. Here, we listen to readings from Holy Scripture and hear a sermon from one of our priests, deacons, lay ministers, or members of the congregation. We also confess our faith by reciting the Nicene Creed and responding to God in prayer.
Ascension follows a lectionary schedule of Bible readings that balances two aims. One is to help the Church systematically read most of the Bible every three years. A second aim is that the weekly readings reflect themes related to the seasons of the Church year. The lectionary provides four readings each Sunday: from the Old Testament reading, a Psalm, an Epistle reading, and a reading from the gospels.
The gospel reading is handled differently than the other readings.
After the gospel reading, we send our children to their groups to learn the faith. They return in time to receive Holy Communion with their families.
This is where we declare our common faith, not only with each other but also with the universal Church. The Nicene Creed tells God’s story and summarizes the important things God has revealed to us about the Divine Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and about God’s work in the world, primarily through the Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
The sermon is usually based on one of the readings but could be based on another text or topic at the preacher's discretion.
The liturgy continues with prayer led by a deacon or a congregation member. We pray for the Church, the world, the ministries in our local parish, the needs of the sick and troubled, those who need to come to the light of faith, and those who have reposed in the Lord.
Our prayers continue with a prayer of confession, where we acknowledge the ways we have closed ourselves off from God’s life. Then, in response to our prayer, the priest speaks words of absolution in the name of Christ. This is a pronouncement of God’s forgiveness based on God’s promise.
Sometimes, following the Absolution, the priest will read one or more passages from the New Testament that assure us of God’s love and forgiveness.
Assured of God’s forgiveness, we now greet one another with ancient words, “The peace of the Lord be always with you.” We are at peace with God and with one another. This is a time to move around the church and bless each other with God’s love and peace, usually with a handshake or a hug.
In Act 3, our focus shifts from Word to Sacrament, from the pulpit to the altar, from Christ’s words to us to Christ’s sacramental presence in our midst.
The liturgy of the sacrament begins with bringing our offerings to the Lord. Three offerings are included.
“Eucharist” is from the Greek “to bless” or “give thanks.” At Jesus’ last supper with his friends, our Lord gave thanks at the meal's start by saying a prayer of blessing over the bread. After the supper, he gave thanks for the wine. These prayers of thanksgiving had their roots in traditional Jewish table prayers. What made the Last Supper unique was that Jesus gave thanks for bread and wine and identified himself with the elements, saying, “This is my Body. This is my Blood.” He also commanded that his followers continue to replicate this friendship meal.
The Eucharistic Prayer (sometimes called the prayer of consecration) has several parts:
First is the Sursum Corda (Latin for “lift up your hearts”). This part of the prayer is a call to lift our hearts to God, to which the congregation responds, “We lift them to the Lord.” This act marks the ascension of the Church to heaven. The Eucharist is how the Church becomes what it already is, seated with Christ in heavenly places. Next, the celebrant says, “Let us give thanks to the Lord our God,” to which we respond, “It is right to give our thanks and praise.” The name Eucharist comes from the Greek word to give thanks, which is what we are about to do.
The second part of the prayer, called the preface, begins to fulfill what we have just been invited to do: give thanks. This part of the prayer rehearses God’s acts of creation and redemption and thanks him for them.
Next is the Sanctus hymn (Latin for “holy” and pronounced sank-toos). This is the song Isaiah (Isaiah 61) and John (Revelation 5) heard sung around God’s throne. When we sing it, we participate with them, not sentimentally, but actually. That is why the Sanctus is introduced with the acknowledgement that we are singing with angels, archangels, and all the company of heaven who have served our Lord in every age. They are with the Lord now, and in the Eucharist, we are lifted up to participate in the worship of heaven.
The prayer continues with a review of salvation history. We recollect the human condition and our need for salvation, and we then rehearse God’s gracious response to our broken state, especially in Jesus's birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and coming again.
The prayer of consecration continues and includes a critical moment when the celebrant repeats Jesus’ original words of institution: “This is my body. This is my blood.” Until now, the focus has been on our being lifted up to the Lord. But in these words, we are struck with the mystery of the Incarnation, that Christ has come down to us, offering us his very life, body and blood.
The final part of the prayer includes the epiclesis (Greek for “invocation”) when the celebrant invokes the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the congregation and the offering of bread and wine. According to Jesus’ own words, it would be the Spirit who would make Christ known and actualize his presence in the Church and the world (John 14-16).
We pray the prayer that Jesus gave us. This prayer sums up everything we need in our lives:
(1) To set apart God as first in our lives (“hallowed by your name”)
(2) To see his rule and reign increasingly come into our lives and world (“your kingdom come, your will be done”)
(1) To have our material needs met (“give us this day our daily bread”)
(2) To have our sins forgiven (“forgive us our sins”)
(3) To forgive others (“as we forgive those who have sinned against us”)
(4) To be delivered from sin and the evil one (“deliver us from evil”)
(5) To acknowledge that God is sovereign over all (“yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory”)
The priest breaks the consecrated bread as a sign of Christ’s body broken for us. He is our Passover Lamb who has delivered us from death by absorbing death in His body.
This prayer is one of the most beautiful in our liturgy. Having confessed our sins, received absolution, consecrated bread and wine to God, and lifted our petitions in the prayers of the people and then the Lord’s Prayer, we humbly approach Almighty God to ask to receive the Body and Blood of His Son through the signs of bread and wine.
Our preparation for communion culminates with a final acknowledgement of our Saviour’s glorious act of saving love on the cross. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Communion is a memorial when we remember our Lord’s incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and ascension on our behalf.
However, we do not believe that Communion is merely an act of remembering past events. Indeed, we affirm with the universal church that bread and wine “be not only badges or tokens [symbols]…but rather they be…effectual signs” (Article 25). In other words, bread and wine are symbols of the body and blood of Christ, but they are not only symbols: They are symbols that communicate what they symbolize. Therefore, to those who “rightly, worthily, and with faith, receive the same, the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ; and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ” whereby “the Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper, is Faith” (Article 28).
All baptized believers in Christ (Anglican or otherwise) are welcome to receive Holy Communion.
At Ascension, we come forward and stand at the altar to receive communion. Someone will direct people pew-by-pew to receive the bread and wine. Form a cup with your two hands to receive the bread and then eat it in communion with Christ, who gives himself to you. When the chalice comes to you, use your hand on its base to guide the wine to your lips. Drink with thanksgiving that God is in covenant with you and that Christ gives you his life. If you prefer, you may dip the bread into the wine. If you cannot take wine, you may touch the chalice.
If you have not been baptized, you are welcome to come to the altar for a prayer of blessing. Cross your arms in front of you, with your right hand on your left shoulder and your left hand on your right shoulder. This posture lets us know you would like a prayer of blessing.
After receiving Christ's Body and Blood, we thank God through prayer and singing, giving glory to God and worshiping his faithfulness. The priest then gives us God’s blessing, after which we sing again as those who have led the service parade back down the aisle like they came in.
We have celebrated the drama of God’s mighty acts by hearing his Word, receiving the Body and Blood of his Son under the forms of Bread and Wine, and being taken to heaven in a liturgy shared with the communion of saints.
Now, refreshed with Christ’s life, we are dismissed to the world to take up our lives in the power of the Spirit. A deacon calls out the dismissal, which serves as a re-commissioning to a life of ministry and service. And we all respond, “Thanks be to God!”